UK's Duke of Marlborough charged with intentional strangulation

LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - ⁠Britain's Duke ⁠of ‍Marlborough, a distant relative of Winston Churchill, has been charged with three ‍counts of intentional strangulation, British police said ​on Wednesday.

Charles James Spencer-Churchill, 70, was arrested in May ​last year over the alleged offences which took place in November 2022, and in January and May 2024 in ​Woodstock, near Oxford in central England, Thames Valley police said in a statement.

He ​has now been issued with a summons to appear at Oxford ‌Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

"Following a Thames Valley Police investigation, The Duke of Marlborough, ​has been charged with ⁠intentional strangulation offences in Woodstock," the police statement said.

Spencer-Churchill, who is known ‌as Jamie Blandford, is the 12th Duke of Marlborough, one of Britain's most senior aristocratic families ‌and whose ancestral home is Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, which ‌played host to U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018.

Two men were jailed earlier this year for stealing a $6 ‍million 18-carat golden toilet from the palace, which was Winston Churchill's ⁠birthplace.

As well as the British wartime leader, Spencer-Churchill is also related to Princess Diana, the late first wife of King Charles.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by William James)

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